Latest news with #1975
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Did baby boomers really have it harder?
ANALYSIS In the intergenerational debate surrounding the relative challenges faced by the various generations over the decades, much of the context is often lost in translation. Through the passage of time and the cumulative impact of inflation, the context of earning $3 an hour at a part time job in say 1981 is largely lost. That is unless you have something of an economic Rosetta Stone with which to translate that into today's terms, so we can better understand one another. Today, we have an attempt at just that. In the first interactive chart, you can click a year on the chart and it will tell you what median full-time earnings were at that point. When put into context with the latest median full-time earnings figures from the ABS, in which the figure is now $1,700 per week, it provides a degree of clarity on here someone's earnings stood in a given year and a means of extrapolation for what they might look like today. In the second, it shows the evolution of a cost of a basket of goods. It starts 50 years ago in 1975 and illustrates over time how much the cost of $1 worth of goods has risen relative to inflation. It also provides a means of comparison to contrast the relative cost of living in a certain year with the present. Earnings evolution Before we get into today's numbers, a few details on limitations are required. Median full-time earnings as a metric is not directly equivalent to wages growth. The ABS Wage Price Index tells you how much growth there is in wages in the same roles, year after year, decade after decade. Meanwhile, median full-time earnings tell you what the person in the very middle of the full-time earners is making over time, so it doesn't account for changes in workforce composition or education levels over time. Back in 1975, the median full-time worker earned $129 per week, since then it has risen to $1700, roughly 13.6 times what it was 50 years ago. For men full time earnings are 13.3 times higher than they were in 1975, for women 15.1 times higher. Cost of living The scope of today's analysis for the cost of living also begins back in 1975. Back then the cost of the basket of goods and services that define the consumer price index was just 11.4 per cent of its cost today. In the decades since, the declining purchasing power of a dollar has not been a linear process, with bouts of high inflation doing significantly more damage than periods of lower than historic inflation, such as the years in the run up to the pandemic. Overall, the cost of the ever-changing basket of goods and services that make up the nation's consumer price index has risen by 8.7x in the last 50 years. A difference in perspective One expression of the disparate viewpoint on the cost of living over time was recently exemplified by a survey performed on behalf of comparison website The survey concluded that Baby Boomers believed they needed an income of $106,747 to live comfortably and that the figure continued to rise through subsequent generations to Gen Z, who believe an income of $198,880 is required to live comfortably. In some ways, this is effectively a graph of declining housing affordability over time. The last of the Baby Boomers passed through their prime first home buying years before broad based affordable housing came to an end shortly after the turn of the millennium and things have continued to deteriorate for each subsequent generation. Putting it all together Bridging the gap between our collective perceptions of incomes and the cost of living over time can be challenging, but using data and tools like today's can provide a degree of clarity and perhaps a more solid point for comparison. It's easy to get bogged down in the perception that people today earn up to 15x more in nominal terms than their fellow Australians did almost 50 years ago, when the ABS series on median full-time earnings began with a high degree of data collection consistency. But once you adjust incomes from any point in history to where that stands versus today's norms, all of a sudden, the gap narrows dramatically and it becomes clear that perhaps things are far less disparate than it first appears. The same is true but to a slightly lesser degree when adjusting historic costs for the rate of headline inflation. Ultimately, the more the nation's various generations understand the circumstances that the other's faced in the past or present, the more we can find common ground with which to build bridges and perhaps place a greater focus on the issues facing the nation, rather than the perceived differences that often lead to divide us.
Wall Street Journal
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Front Runner' Review: Steve Prefontaine, Racing Through Life
Track and field shimmers with names that transcend the sport—Jesse Owens, Florence Griffith Joyner, Usain Bolt. But perhaps no name carries the power and poignancy of Steve Prefontaine, the gritty, charismatic distance runner from Oregon whose life ended in a car crash in 1975. Only 24 at the time, he was already a celebrity—a brash media star whose career presaged the commercial-endorsement boom for sports figures, a rebel who decried the exploitation of amateur athletes, a leg-churning whippet whose desperate exertions thrilled the roaring crowds. By conventional standards, Prefontaine would not be considered among the greats; he holds no world records and won no Olympic medals. But scrutiny of his life, in books and film, highlights how unconventional he was—a point reinforced in Brendan O'Meara's well-crafted 'The Front Runner: The Life of Steve Prefontaine.' Sidestepping the deification of his subject, Mr. O'Meara humanizes Prefontaine in his vexing contradictions, buoyant spirit and brutal competitiveness.
Geek Tyrant
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Original Unused Poster Art Concepts For Steven Spielberg's JAWS — GeekTyrant
Here are a couple of original unused poster art concepts that were created for Steven Spielberg's classic film Jaws . I couldn't find who the artist was behind them, but at an auction, were they sold for $3,750, it's said the they were most likley created by a in-house studio artist while Universal was working on the marketing for the film. The descirption reads: "Universal, c.1975. An extremely rare set of (7) printed poster concepts for "Jaws". As one of the most recognizable poster images of all time, the final "Jaws" poster by Roger Kastel has become a cinematic and pop culture icon. 'These alternative poster concepts represent an incredible, seldom seen look at the development artwork of this classic film. These glossy prints are hand-lettered in ink along the margins as A-E, with an additional b-1 and another image that is unmarked. 'Throughout the images, different font choices and imagery of the shark are used. The prints measure 11.25"x14" each and the set is in overall good condition with some surface wear and spots small spots of yellowing from use and age." Check out the posters below and let us know what you think!
Times
19-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Sir Graeme Odgers obituary: chair of Monopolies Commission
Graeme Odgers, a senior official at the Department of Trade and Industry, was chairing a meeting of leading British bankers in the boardroom of Barclays Bank. Across the table sat Alex Park, the chief executive of British Leyland, with the rest of his board. After an hour of tortured discussion, Odgers got to the heart of the problem: 'Mr Park, are you telling us that next week you may not be able to pay your employees' wages?' After a long silence, Park replied: 'Mr Odgers, I think I might be telling you that.' It was 1975 and British Leyland not only employed 250,000 workers but also indirectly supported about 300,000 in associated companies, meaning that a sizeable proportion of the country's workforce faced imminent unemployment.
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Forever' Explores the Timelessness of Teen Romance (and Sex)
In Judy Blume's taboo-busting 1975 novel 'Forever …,' a teenage girl has sex for the first time. It does not destroy her life. (That's the plot twist.) But she is still surrounded by cautionary tales: unwanted pregnancies, untimely marriages and dreams deferred. The stakes of any tryst are higher for her than they are for her more experienced high school boyfriend. When the showrunner Mara Brock Akil considered adapting the novel, a young adult classic, she saw the relationship through different eyes: her own, as a mother to Black sons. In her first meeting with Blume — whose seminal coming-of-age best-sellers helped generations understand their bodies and themselves — she made the case that a TV version should also be told from the perspective of the boyfriend, in a contemporary series focused on Black families. If Katherine, the book's heroine, seemed socially powerless in her era, 'I would posit that Black boys are the most vulnerable at this time,' said Brock Akil, the creator of the beloved 2000s sitcom 'Girlfriends,' and several other comedies. 'A modern Black family, I feel like we know how dangerous the world is.' Blume wrote 'Forever …' in the aftermath of the Pill, in response to her daughter's request for a story in which a teen girl doesn't get punished for having, and enjoying, a sex life — the dominant narrative at the time. Blume's antidote captures the dramatic rush of first love and the fumbling urgency of adolescent exploration in frank language that made it both irresistible for young readers (with dog-eared copies passed around in schools) and one of the most frequently banned books in America well into the 2000s. Brock Akil's interpretation, which debuts on Netflix on Thursday, stars Lovie Simone ('Greenleaf') and the newcomer Michael Cooper Jr., flipping the original story's gender roles: Simone, as Keisha Clark, is more experienced and self-assured; Cooper Jr., as Justin Edwards, is the awkward one who falls hard and needs guidance. Winningly, it preserves the source's emotional innocence — breathe easy, parents; this is not the hard living of teen fare like 'Euphoria.' But it builds tension exploring issues of race and class. The show is set in Los Angeles in 2018, 'between Trayvon Martin's murder and George Floyd,' Brock Akil said in a recent interview, when Black families like hers 'felt like we were alone and screaming in a vacuum — a very scary time.' 'We didn't have the language that we have now,' she added, about 'how we were parenting to get our children safe to their futures.' Blume never planned to option 'Forever …' for the screen. 'I didn't think it would work today,' she said in an email. (A 1978 TV movie version is best forgotten.) But Brock Akil's twists, and the real-life experiences behind them, convinced her. 'I was intrigued,' Blume said. 'I liked her enthusiasm. I liked her creative energy. I'm glad now she tells the story from both the boy's and the girl's points of view. I especially like getting to know the boy's family.' Karen Pittman, whose credits include 'And Just Like That …' and 'The Morning Show,' and Wood Harris, a star of the 'Creed' movies, play Justin's highly involved parents. Their complex story lines are a departure, too. After decades of turning down TV and film offers, Blume, who at 87 is still active as an indie bookstore owner and advocate against censorship, has lately opened the door. A well-received movie adaptation of 'Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret,' starring Rachel McAdams, Abby Ryder Fortson and Kathy Bates, arrived in 2023. It was a faithful rendering, keeping the '70s milieu, attracting what Blume thought of as a nostalgia audience (and their daughters). This project was pitched differently. 'I don't think 15- and 16-year-olds would've tuned into the '70s version of 'Forever,'' said Regina King, an executive producer of the series, who also directed the first of its eight episodes. Brock Akil, 54, grew up on Blume's work; the novelist is foundational 'in the room of who I am as a writer,' she said. The trick was staying true to the entrancing feelings of 'Forever …' — 'the yearning, the longing, the curiosity, the nervousness' of school-age romance — in this new context. For today's teenagers, when 'they're ready to have sex, it's kind of like, 'we have apps for that,'' Brock Akil said. 'What we're missing is connection and intimacy.' The bonds and strictures of Black families were also part of her canvas. When her eldest son, an inspiration for the show, revealed that she and his father were considered the most overprotective parents in his friend group, she said: ''Score! I'm proud of that!'' Brock Akil recalled. 'And he goes: 'No! That's not what I'm telling you. I'm asking for some room.'' Brock Akil developed the show, her first adaptation in a 30-year-career in TV, with periodic input from Blume but also a lot of free rein. For a while, she even rechristened a part of the boyfriend's anatomy: his penis, which in the novel he nicknames Ralph. 'Should I rename him a Black name?' she recalled wondering. 'Jerome?' (Ultimately, she kept Blume's original moniker as a thank you 'for her blessing to translate the book.') In her version, Justin, the elder son of an affluent family and a would-be basketball star, is a neurodivergent high school junior, an anime fan and a slightly gawky good kid with a megawatt smile. 'There was something that was written in the text that was, 'Justin has one foot in confidence and the other foot in insecurity,'' Cooper Jr. said. But an offbeat, unsmooth Black boy 'is not typically the main character of anything,' said Brock Akil. 'He's the sidekick; he might be in the crew.' Making him the protagonist was the point, King explained. 'To be able to tell the story where the Black boy is quirky, to feel that it's OK to be awkward — my hope is that a lot of young Black men that do feel that can see and recognize that there's a lot of others out there,' she said. Cooper Jr. was one of them. 'He actually embraces it,' King said, although, she added, 'there were moments where he wanted to lean more toward the cool side, and it was like, No, not yet, not yet.' Both leads were in their early 20s when they shot the series. Doing research, Cooper Jr., a Dallas-area native who graduated from high school in 2020 and was on the path to a political science degree when he decided to pursue acting, visited a private school — a majority-white one, like Justin's — and sought out the Black students. 'There were sooo many Justins, just trying to figure it out,' he said. And even though Cooper Jr. and his character were 'very different,' he said — 'I just want to smack him sometimes, and give him a big hug' — other dimensions of balancing independence and safety as a young Black man resonated. 'A lot of the conversations that we had, on set or in the scenes, were things that I've experienced,' he said. Keisha, Simone's character, is a decorated track athlete and top student with her sights set on Howard University — and a propensity for sexual missteps. 'I hope that people can handle her story with grace, because it deserves some grace,' Simone said. 'It's somebody that's so young, dealing with something so traumatizing for the first time ever.' Simone said she 'couldn't stop thinking about' how younger audiences would respond, especially since her own siblings are still in high school. 'When I was on set, I would always think, Would they agree with what I just did?' she said. 'Because I know that these are things that actual teenagers go through. These are going to be stories that are theirs.' The cast and crew, especially veterans like King, a child star turned Oscar-winning actress for 'If These Walls Could Talk,' reflected on their 'firsts,' talking up their entry-level jobs in the industry and bringing in photos of their own proms. (The fictional 'Forever' prom, on Santa Monica pier, was way better than her real one in upstate New York, Simone said without hesitation.) Los Angeles's sprawl is an obstacle to Justin and Keisha, who go to different schools. But as the couple meanders into ramen shops and designer boutiques, across ball fields and onto buses, the filmmakers also took care to show its charms, especially in historically Black neighborhoods that are little seen onscreen. 'We always said, at every production meeting, 'Guys, we are telling an epic, intimate love story, within a love letter to L.A.,'' Brock Akil recalled. The secret to most teenage romance is that nothing much happens — but it feels as if everything has. 'Judy was able to dramatize real life, and had us hooked,' Brock Akil said. 'To get through the day, try to figure out who you are, have somebody to love you and text you back, and look toward a future — that's what most people are doing.' 'Just dramatizing emotional stakes in human beings,' she added, 'is worthy of the exercise and experience.'
